Sept 18, Sunday & Sept 19 Monday

Sept 19, Monday

Busy day today.   Researched the Internet for a side trip to Manizales, the coffee growing region of Colombia.  There are daily buses that go there, so tomorrow morning, if all goes according to plan, I’m boarding a bus at 10:30 for the eight hour drive.   I could have flown, but I would not get to see much of rural Colombia, so I’ve opted for the bus trip.    If I find that it’s too long, I can always fly back.   One of the ladies who worked at the Emerald Museum told me all about Manizales and Armenia, and confirmed that travelling by bus is very secure.  It’s an express “deluxe” bus with a company called Bolivariano.   Tonight, I still need to research to find a hotel in Manizales, but that should not be a problem.   From that city I can do at least two tours:  one to a coffee plantation and one to Nevado del Ruiz.  I’m planning on staying at least 3 nights but may stay longer.   Ideally, I return to Bogota on Saturday so that I can take the train to “La Catedral de Sal”  a cathedral built of salt within an old salt mine, on Sunday.  This is an all day excursion, leaving at 8:30 in the morning and returning at 6 pm, even though it’s only about 45 miles outside the city limits.   Are you mixed up yet ?   Wait til you get to the end of this message and read about Peru !

By noon today, I was ready to visit El Jardin Botanico.   It was almost one o’clock by the time I got a taxi.   This is noon hour and a busy time since many people go back home for their lunch, and then come back to work for the afternoon,  at least that’s what the hotel security guy told me.    I’ve seen people eating their lunches in the Parque de la Independencia, as well as others having lunch in restaurants, but had not realized that many go back home.  Not sure if their lunch is one hour or two ?   The traffic was horrendous.  It took at least 20 minutes for the taxi to just  circle the block !    Once we got on the main road however things moved along quite rapidly.  Should I say Speedily !    Yvette, they drive like the taxi drivers in Lima !  And the same way in Puerto Rico.  It does not matter if there are three lanes or four, if there is room for five of them side by side, they will do it.   And they cut each other off going 100km or more per hour !   No police cars anywhere that I saw, but plenty of police and security personnel walking the streets or guarding restaurants, shops, banks, etc. The botanical garden was quite nice, even though it is early spring here.   It was a partially sunny day, which was nice.  The elevation is high but I am told that it is pretty much the same temperature all year round.   I spent about 2 hours walking around the gardens and then took a taxi back to the hotel.  

There is a shopping plaza across the street, and I had seen a travel agency in there earlier last week, so I returned to get information on a flight to Peru for next week.    There is only one International Airport in Peru and it is in Lima;  so unfortunately, I will have to fly south west to Lima, then fly back north to Chiclayo in order to visit:  Sipan & Sican, Trujillo, Chan Chan.   Then I probably have to fly back to Lima before I can do the rest of my Peruvian travels.   Anyway, the guys at the travel agency were great and my flight from Bogota to Lima to Chiclayo is booked for Tuesday Sept 27 and they have also booked me in a hotel there for three days.

So don’t worry if you don’t hear from me for a few days, I’ll be in-transit.

Sept  18, Sunday

Slow day, still a bit chilled.   Was woken up by a marching band going by the hotel and when I got up to look out my window I saw a parade of pink !  (Breast cancer)   It took them a good 10 minutes to walk passed the hotel, so there were hundreds of people taking part in the walk.   

Since I had missed breakfast, I decided to have lunch at the hotel restaurant and I noticed that two lanes of the boulevard (Carreta 7) was closed off for bikers and pedestrians,  just like they do on the parkway in Ottawa on Sundays.   Hundreds of people went by while I was eating, so I decided to go out and join them.  This time I went in the opposite direction from my past treks.

Not sure that I’ve told you that this main boulevard is under reconstruction.  Some work being done by machines, to excavate the roads, but most of the finishing work is done by hand.   There is also a lot of graffiti everywhere;  years of it built up over time.   I’ve seen a lot of splashes made by paint gun bullets all over some buildings.  

There was approximately ½ hour of sunshine today and I was able to enjoy it during my walk.  As soon as I came back to my hotel room however, the skies had darkened again.